Probation prepares to track more prisoners

Sept. 30, 2011

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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Low-level inmates clear out of a walkway for passing deputies at Theo Lacy Jail in Orange. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Steven Stenman, Orange County's chief probation officer, says his agency is prepared to begin processing and monitoring additional prisoners who would otherwise be handled by the state prison system. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Mark Refowitz, deputy agency director of Orange County's Behavioral Health Services Department, says he understands that an increased criminal population means that his staff is going to have to "flex up" and believes his people are up to the task. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Commander Steve Kea of the Orange County Sheriff's Department says that the increased prison population means that they'll likely have to reopen the women's jail in Santa Ana and add to the James A. Musick jail facility. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Steven Stenman, Orange County's chief probation officer, says his agency is prepared to begin processing and monitoring additional prisoners who would otherwise be handled by the state prison system. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Inmates go about their business at Theo Lacy Jail in Orange. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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There are 13 guard towers at San Quentin Prison to watch over its 5,300 inmates. The number 13 is no coincidence. The prison was designed to send a message to prisoners that they are unlucky to be there. There are 13 steps leading to tiers and 13 bars across each cell. MINDY SCHAUER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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The aftermath of a prison riot inside the California Institution for Men prison is seen on Aug. 19, 2009, in Chino. MICHAL CZERWONKA, GETTY IMAGES

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In this undated file photo released by the California Department of Corrections, inmates sit in crowded conditions at California State Prison, Los Angeles. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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A prison spokesman carries a handful of keys while leading reporters on a tour of the new lethal injection facility at San Quentin State Prison in San Quentin, Calif. ERIC RISBERG, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Low-level inmates clear out of a walkway for passing deputies at Theo Lacy Jail in Orange. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

O.C.'s prison problem

Responsibility for confining and monitoring thousands of convicts from the state falls into the hands of county governments Saturday, the result of a major overhaul in California's correctional system.

Orange County probation officials will begin to see their caseloads swell as an overhaul of the state prison system leaves them responsible for monitoring thousands of new convicts.

Faced with a court mandate to ease overcrowding in the California prison system, a state plan to require county governments to house more nonviolent, non-sex-offender inmates in local jails went into effect Saturday.

While courtrooms and county jails will take on the burden of what officials refer to as the "inmate realignment," the changes amount to a major overhaul for the county probation department, which will take over supervision of released inmates who previously would have been assigned to state parole agents.

County probation officials will also oversee alternatives to incarceration, such as GPS monitoring, home confinement and rehabilitation programs, which are expected to be a key tool in easing crowding in county jails.

A LEARNING CURVE

State officials, including Gov. Jerry Brown, hope turning increased responsibility for the lower-level offenders to county agencies will lead to a more cost-effective criminal justice system, one better equipped to slow inmate recidivism.

Local officials say they are less worried about creating the programs needed to supervise or rehabilitate inmates, most of which exist on a smaller scale, than they are about the funding needed to make the programs work.

"The learning curve, not on supervising, treating or housing offenders but on dealing with these new guidelines, is ongoing," said Chief Probation Officer Steven Sentman, who chairs a committee in charge of crafting a plan to implement the inmate realignment. "I think that causes a lot of anxiety for folks, realizing that the funding allocated by the state is more than likely not enough. But you still have to work with those funds and best allocate those resources."

Once the state's plan is fully implemented over the next few years, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation estimates that about 3,200 of the lower-level offenders will be supervised by probation officials in Orange County. That includes an estimated 1,750 who will be supervised after their release from jail, several hundred who are expected to be sent back to jail on probation violations, and about 1,460 who will serve time on supervised release rather than behind bars.

"The numbers are expected to grow gradually," said Robert Rangel, a spokesman for the Orange County Probation Department. "It's not like there is going to be one big bus that pulls up with thousands of inmates at one point."

The result will be a larger caseload for Orange County probation officers and their supervisors, one that will almost certainly require a round of hiring at an agency that hasn't hired in the past three years due to budget cuts.

Probation officials say they are shifting resources to handle the first few months under the realignment plan but are submitting plans to the county CEO's office for "strategic rehiring." It takes about nine months to a year to train a probation officer, officials said, and officials have not outlined how many new officers will be needed at the department.

"It's going to be a moving target," Sentman said. "We have to analyze the data and true impacts. It may take us a year or two to know what they are. But the business at hand we know what to do."

PROBATION FLEXIBILITY

The realignment plan is expected to provide greater flexibility for rewarding those who abide by the terms of their probation – and punishing those who do not.

The probation department's supervision of inmates after they leave the jails could last as long as three years or as little as six months for those who don't violate the terms of their release. In fact, lower-level inmates who remain violation-free will now be required by law to be released from their supervision after 12 months.

But while those who adhere to the rules can be released from supervision earlier, the new state guidelines also allow for additional punishment of violators, officials said, including stays of up to 180 days in jail or shorter "flash incarcerations" of 10 days behind bars.

"It allows us to put those who are a public safety risk where they need to be and offer those who aren't options other than incarceration," Sentman said.

Meanwhile, judges will have wide discretion when it comes to alternatives to incarceration, such as shorter sentences followed by more supervision or rehabilitation.

"We don't know what those sentences will look like just yet," said Chris Bieber, the probation department's chief deputy for field operations. "We have the ability, the mechanisms in place to handle those; we just need the funding and direction from the courts as to what the numbers (of inmates) will be and when we will be getting them."

The state plan also expects the county to provide tools for inmates to get their lives back on track, including drug and alcohol treatment, job training, housing assistance, counseling and education. That includes an increase in collaborative rehabilitation efforts, such as the Center for Opportunity Reentry and Education, in which the probation department teams with the county department of education to help adult probationers earn high school diplomas or GED certificates.

The county plan calls for the opening of several regional adult day reporting centers to aid in supervising probationers. They have not chosen locations for the regional centers, which would provide mental health and substance-abuse treatment, as well as vocational and educational services.

NO STATE GUARANTEES

Local law enforcement agencies have remained wary of the realignment plan in the weeks leading up to its rollout.

Brown has promised to do "whatever it takes" to provide a constitutional guarantee for future realignment funding, addressing fears that local agencies will be left with the cost for the additional inmates in future years.

Until a funding guarantee is in place, many local officials aren't convinced by the state's promises. But with a court mandate to lower California's prison population, state leaders are facing significant penalties if the realignment plan doesn't go as planned.

"That's the big stick that is hanging over everybody," said Mark Refowitz, deputy director of the behavioral health services department of the Orange County Health Care Agency.

Also concerned about the financial impact of the plan are Orange County's city police chiefs, some of whom have made a last-minute push for more state money earmarked for the county level.

Of the $23 million the state is sending to the county level during the first year of the realignment plan, about $690,000 has been set aside for the local police departments.

"Oftentimes, these impacts fall on the police departments, and more than that the people who live in our cities," said Kenneth Small, Huntington Beach's police chief and president of the Orange County Chief of Police and Sheriff's Association. "Honestly, up to this point, I don't think the local police chiefs have had much input into the plan."

Worrying that any potential probation hires would require a training period, Small said he expects local police departments to have to pick up some slack for compliance checks among parolees.

"There is no way the probation department is going to be ready for what happens on Oct. 1," Small said. "Someone will need to fill that void, and it will fall on the local agencies."

Officials acknowledged that the plan to divvy up Orange County's slice of the state funds has primarily taken place at the county level. While the funding for "unintended consequences" on the city's level has been set aside, county officials say they just don't know what the ultimate effect on municipal departments will be.

"It's hard to fund the unknown or fund what may happen, because you can't afford to do that," Sentman said. "But some things we know are happening. A certain amount of folks are coming, they are going to need some custody beds, they are going to need to be supervised and they are going to need to be treated."

Others worry that rather than overhauling or bolstering rehabilitation efforts, the inmate-realignment plan simply shifts responsibility and costs.

"I really don't understand what releasing has to do with rehabilitation," said Sara Wakefield, an assistant professor of criminology at UC Irvine. "I'm in favor of reducing the prison population, but this seems like a combination of moving costs from state to county."

READY OR NOT

While only a trickle of new prisoners is expected to enter the county system in the next few months, some also question what will happen if the crime rate, which has remained low despite the tough economic climate, were to increase.

"Because it is cyclical, and that is when our fears will be realized," said Tom Dominguez, president of the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriff's.

Ultimately, until new inmates arrive in jail and parolees hit the streets, no one knows exactly what the relocation plan will bring.

"We can complain and have a temper tantrum all we want, but it's here and we need to face it head-on," Dominguez said.

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